Family Ties
by ITNW1989
Summary: A random assortment of Shiara ficlets involving our intrepid duo, and the various moments they experience with their two daughters, Benezia and Minerva. No set chapter order, mostly jumping around from one point to another. Post-ME3 with my own optimistic twist of the Destroy Ending, but may also contain ficlets throughout the trilogy and maybe before.
1. Jellybeans and Firsts

**2295 CE: Nine Years Since the Reaper War**

"Yes, Jellybean, I heard you the first time."

…

"No, that won't change a thing. Neither will begging, mind you."

…

"What do you mean it wasn't your fault? You're the one who decided it would be a good idea to spill your food all over your tray."

…

"_It seemed like a good idea at the time_? Now you're just trying to mess with me."

…

"You little… you're lucky you're talking to me, young lady. Your momma would have trapped you in a stasis bubble by now for talking back like that."

The _young lady _in question blubbered happily, splashing her little blue fists on the tray in front of her, splattering the baby food everywhere. The human woman talking to her sighed, shaking her head in exasperation.

"Really, Jellybean," Admiral Morrigan Shepard said, narrowing her eyes at the baby asari, "you're the daughter of a Shepard, and you're already seven years old. You really should know better."

"Ba!" little Jellybean squeaked excitedly at her father. "Bagagagaba!"

"No, pulling your little innocent act won't work on me, young lady," Shepard said sternly, hands on her hips as she mock-glared at her daughter. "Your mom might fall for that all the time, but we Shepards are made of sterner stuff. Besides, who do you think perfected the art of manipulating people?" she asked her daughter shrewdly.

"Ga?" the baby asked, tilting her head quizzically at her father.

"What do you mean 'Grandma Shepard'? Why you little cretin, you, get over here," Shepard growled, her face contorted into ridiculous monster faces as she walked over to her daughter. She picked up the baby, making growling noises and tickling little Benezia who screamed in delight the entire time. She flailed her arms around, bits of her baby food flying everywhere which Shepard just ignored as she relentlessly tickled her child. This went on for a few minutes until Shepard could feel her daughter starting to tire, her arms starting to slow down.

She returned Benezia, who was still giggling, to her high chair before resuming her stern pose in front of her daughter. "Now, are you going to still say Grandma Shepard, or are you gonna be honest and say that your Daddy's the master at making people do what she wants them to do?" she asked sternly. _Daddy_, Shepard thought musingly as she thought about how her daughter might have answered her. Though Aethyta, Liara's "father," had explained to her (in her own amazingly crude way) how one would be considered an asari's father, it had still taken her a while to get used to being called the father of her own child. As time passed, though, she couldn't imagine being called anything else. By the time little Benezia had turned two, Shepard was already correcting other humans who occasionally made the mistake of calling her the mother. It had caused no end of confusion to the humans, one that had sent Shepard venting out her annoyance at the closest inanimate object.

"So, what's it gonna be, Jellybean?" Shepard asked, narrowing her eyes at Benezia when she still hadn't answered even after her internal monologue.

Benezia giggled and pointed a finger at Shepard, who gave a satisfied nod. "Good. Now let's get you cleaned and we can-"

Shepard didn't get to finish her statement, because she was suddenly interrupted by something. And this was a something that would remain with her for the rest of her life. Not that she didn't have any shortage on such moments. The difference was that she knew exactly how to deal with those other moments. She'd remained calm, collected and determined on the outside even though she was, most likely, freaking out and crapping out her breakfast on the inside when they had happened. Out of everyone who knew her, only her closest friends (namely Liara, Tali and Garrus) had any idea just how terrified she actually was when faced with those situations.

This was not one of those situations. The moment it happened, Shepard froze, unsure how to react. She stood as still as a statue, gaping at her daughter with wide eyes. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, her throat refusing to work properly. After a few moments of trying to speak, she managed to croak something out. "C-come again?"

Benezia giggled, as if knowing what she had done to make her father's brain short circuit. She pointed again at Shepard with a tiny finger.

"Dada!"

* * *

When Liara came down a few minutes later, having finished with her business as the Shadow Broker, she walked into the sight of Shepard sitting on the floor of the kitchen, her legs splayed out as she tightly hugged Benezia close to her, all but strangling their daughter in her embrace. It was a sight to behold for Liara, watching the savior of the galaxy bawling her eyes out while splayed out in a heap. She had only seen this side of her bondmate once before, back when Benezia had been born. Shepard was just as much as mess as she was at that moment, and it was a sight that would always both amuse and warm Liara's heart.


	2. Nightmares and Headbutts

**2220 CE, Thirty-four years after the Reaper War:**

"Are we there yet, Daddy?"

"Yeah, are we there yet, Dad?"

"Are we there yet?"

"Are we there yet?!"

"Yes! We're… finally, THANKFULLY, here. Now go out and enjoy the beach before I use a shockwave to toss the two of you into the water."

"Yaaaaaaay!" A pair of small blue-skinned asari burst out of a skycar, already halfway across the sand of the beach and jumping into the water in a matter of seconds. The two of them were giggling nonstop, splashing and playing with each other with the kind of exuberance and happiness that only children could seem to channel.

"Gods above, I am so glad we're finally here." A tall, raven-haired human stepped out of the passenger's side of the skycar. "Longest three-hour drive. Ever." Her stormy gray eyes kept a sharp watch on the two young asari playing in the water, the exasperated expression on her face softened by the fond look in her eyes. "Remind me to thank Cerberus for my augmentations and implants, or I swear I might have died from a migraine on the ride here."

"Come now, Morrigan, it wasn't that bad," a chiding voice came from the driver's side of the skycar. The owner of the voice stepped out, revealing a powder-blue asari, the same skin color as the two smaller asari in the beach. She was staring at the human with a small smirk on her face as she crossed her arms in front of her.

The human, Morrigan, rolled her eyes in response. "It has to be that legendary asari patience for you to say that 'it wasn't that bad.' The girls wouldn't stop asking 'Are we there yet?!'-" Morrigan's voice took on a higher pitch when imitating the younger asari "-for the past hour!" She shuddered dramatically as she walked over to the asari, as if the mere thought of the ride to the beach was a living nightmare for her.

The asari took the human's hands in her own, a small smile playing on her lips. "Are you telling me that the great SpecTRe Admiral Morrigan Shepard, Savior of the Citadel, Savior of the Galaxy and Destroyer of Reapers, is terrified by the thought of her being stuck with her two children in a skycar for three hours?"

Shepard nodded her head fervently, giving another overdramatic shudder. "Give me a platoon of heavily-armed Phantoms and Nemeses over this any day, Liara, please." She gave the asari, Liara, a serious look. "And it's not the thought that terrifies me. It's the _memory_ of it. I just lived that nightmare, remember?"

"Well, we're here now, so you can put all that behind you now," Liara teased, running her fingers over the bonding bracelet covering Shepard's left forearm, tracing the red, blue and silver thread crisscrossing all over the bracelet.

"This is all entirely your fault, you know," Shepard said, running her own fingers over the gray, red and yellow threads that crossed Liara's own bracelet before letting her forefinger rest on the simple gold ring that decorated her bondmate's left hand. "The only reason it took us three hours to get here was because you insisted on driving." She shot Liara an exasperated look. "You drive really slowly, you know that, right?"

"I was not about to endanger the lives of our two daughters by letting you drive the car, Morrigan," Liara shot back, the teasing smile on her face disappearing to be replaced by a serious expression that was only half-joking.

Shepard sputtered, her mouth closing and opening like a fish stranded on land. "You would let Benezia and Minerva take the Urdnot Rite of Passage when they're older, but you won't even let them ride a car that I'm driving?" she sputtered indignantly.

Liara crossed her arms. "Three things, Morrigan: one, they will be old enough by then, and if Benezia's biotics are anything to go by, she and Minerva will have no problem taking them on, especially with Grunt alongside them. Two, klixen and varren are minor pests at best. And three, I would much rather they avoid a thresher maw for five minutes than have them spend one in a car you are driving," she finished, fixing her bondmate with a glare. "Judging from my own experience with thresher maws while you were driving the Mako, I would have bet my credits on the squad dying from your driving than from thresher maw acid."

"For the last time, T'Soni, my driving was never that bad!" Shepard was still baffled at how adversely her friends and her own bondmate reacted whenever she offered to drive any kind of vehicle, ranging from a hasty "No!" by Tali, all the way to running away from her, as was the case with Joker (or at least hobbling quickly away, willingly and even enthusiastically assisted by EDI, the traitorous AI, Shepard thought). She seemed to recall Tali and Liara looking rather green – figuratively, of course - a few times after a couple of planetside missions involving the Mako, but she'd always assumed that that was more due to the intense fighting they normally went through or something, since neither of her friends were exactly accustomed to heavy firefights back when they were still chasing Saren, what with Liara being the mousy archaeologist and Tali the naïve young girl on her coming-of-age pilgrimage.

Liara, on the other hand, knew better. Much better. She fixed her bondmate with a _look_. "Morrigan, _Wrex_ was terrified to get on the Mako with you all those years back when we were going after Saren. And I do not know about you, but when a two-ton bloodthirsty krogan whose solution to life is to either eat or headbutt everything in his way – stop giggling, you fool – when a krogan like _Wrex, _of all people, is terrified of going into a vehicle that you are driving, I think it says a lot about your driving skills… or lack thereof."

Shepard stopped laughing and narrowed her eyes, picturing the self-styled krogan Overlord laughing at her behind her back over her allegedly terrible driving. "Remind me to give that scaly bag of hot air a headbutt the next time we drop by Tuchanka," she said, already relishing the thought of butting heads against Wrex. "He's long overdue for one already, anyway." She shot Liara a mischievous grin. "And don't let Wrex hear you call him a two-ton lizard. He's self-conscious enough about his weight as it is."

Liara shook her head in wonder and exasperation, ignoring her bondmate's last statement. "Sometimes I wonder if you are the one with one-fourth krogan blood in you, what with the way you always seem to enjoy butting heads – literally _and_ figuratively – with Wrex and Grunt."

Shepard's eyes twinkled with mischief at Liara's words. "Does this mean you accept your dad's words and admit that you _are _a quarter krogan?" Liara's continued insistence that asari genetics did not work that way and her exasperation towards how her father – Matriarch Aethyta – loved to bring up those kinds of things (and other, more sexually explicit things) was what made Shepard imitate the matriarch to try and drive Liara up the walls by constantly bringing up her bondmate's family tree and genetic heritage.

Liara's face fell, her mouth working quickly as she tried to backtrack. "That- no, I- what I meant was-." She floundered, unable to find the right words to take back her slip-up. She had no doubt that Shepard was going to tell Aethyta about this as soon as they had returned to Thessia… and then the two of them would start to make a combined effort to drive her insane. No doubt the children were also going to jump in; they had an almost perverse enjoyment in helping their father drive Liara mad. It was exactly that which made Liara start thinking if asari children really didn't inherit their father's blood. Benezia and Minerva were too much like their father to not consider it.

"Yes?" Shepard asked, giving her bondmate a sweet smile while her eyes sparkled with amusement and mischief at Liara's predicament.

Liara paused for a few moments before giving her bondmate an icy glare that promised great and terrible retribution later before turning around and storming off to join their children in the beach without another word. "Liara, wait!" Shepard called out only to be ignored. She grumbled, turning back to the skycar. "Sure, she can make fun of my driving all the time, but when I tease her a little, she leaves me here alone to get all of the stuff," the human complained under her breath, gathering the umbrella, blankets, towels, picnic basket and everything else, creating a small mass effect field to biotically carry the heavier stuff with her as she slowly followed her family to the beach. She sighed sadly as she brought the stuff with her.

"… I am so not getting any tonight."


	3. Regrets and Guilt

**AN: Welp, here's a random update! This one took me a while to write, mostly because I've been plagued by problems with real life in general. Also, this goes away from the lighthearted tone of the past two chapters, and instead goes into Hurt/Comfort territory. Expect some fluff, and some angst as well. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

**2220 CE, Thirty-four years after the Reaper War**

Shepard lounged underneath the umbrella, a relaxed smile on her face as she enjoyed the sight of her bondmate playing with their daughters in the sand just a few feet away from her. The three of them were building a sand castle… or at least trying to, as Minerva, their youngest, kept knocking down a part of the sand castle now and then. Benezia, their eldest, tried to get her father to join them, although Shepard refused, explaining to her daughter that she'd only end up somehow blowing up the entire thing. Benezia's eyes had widened before excitedly asking if Shepard really could do that after they were done. The look on Liara's face when she heard was priceless, and Shepard had agreed, if only to enjoy the aggravated expression that had appeared on her bondmate's face.

A glint of color against the beautiful white sand suddenly caught Shepard's eye, breaking her out of her musings as she turned her head to look at the source of the flash of color. Her eyes fell on a small seashell, its reddish-brown surface dotted with white. She got up slowly, moving towards the small shell at a snail's pace. She knelt down in front of the seashell, carefully picking it up and cupping it in between her hands. As her thumbs traced its shape, a memory, long buried but never forgotten, reached the surface of her mind.

* * *

**2186 CE**

"_Might go somewhere sunny. Sit on beach, look at ocean. Collect seashells." Mordin nods, as if he has just had the best idea in the entire galaxy._

"_You'd go crazy inside an hour, Mordin," she says, a teasing smirk on her face._

"… _Might run tests on the seashells," Mordin amends after a nanosecond's worth of reconsideration._

* * *

**2220 CE**

"You crazy bastard," Shepard murmured, suddenly blinking away tears from her eyes as they threatened to start pouring down her face. "You would have loved this beach, you know. Probably would have enjoyed playing with the kids here." She looked behind her, a small smile crossing her face as she saw that Minerva had started pretending like she was some kind of Godzilla monster, stomping around the castle even as Benezia and Liara tried to prevent her from completely destroying the sand sculpture. She looked back down at the seashell, closing her eyes as more of her memories resurfaced, though ones of the more decidedly less pleasant sort.

* * *

**2186 CE**

_She stares at the dalatrass, almost unable to believe what she has just heard. This wrinkly old newt is trying to convince her to sabotage the cure in exchange for salarian support for the war! By all accounts, she should have already disconnected the comm and left for Tuchanka's surface without a backward glance. And yet… the dalatrass' question gnaws at her. "Do you honestly believe the genophage will end in lasting peace, Commander?"_

_She wants to immediately answer that yes, curing the genophage after almost fifteen hundred years of it slowly driving the krogan into complete extinction will result in peace. Before she can say this, though, a thought enters her mind. What happens on the off chance that both Eve and Wrex end up dead? At the moment, the two of them are the only things keeping the entire krogan race united, and even then, it's a very tenuous unity. She is reminded of Chiefs Gatatog Uvenk and Weyrloc Guld, both highly traditionalist krogan who were both extremely against the radical changes that Wrex has been making. She ended up killing both of them on Tuchanka almost a year ago, but the mere thought of them is enough to give her pause._

_It is doubtful that they are the only two clans against the changes being made by Wrex. If something happens to Wrex and Eve, the risk of another Krogan Rebellion happening would be too high. She trusts Eve and Wrex to be able to hold the krogan together for the centuries that they would be ruling together. But what about if they get killed, or even when their time has come and they pass away, however far away that might seem?_

_She hesitates before answering. "Wrex and Eve might be able to forge something… but without them… no, the krogan are too violent," she says through gritted teeth, hating herself for what she is saying. She clenches her fists before continuing. "But I don't have a choice here."_

_A sly and smug smirk crosses the dalatrass' face as she looks at her with triumph. "Then allow me to offer you one…"_

"_There's that look in your face again, Commander," Eve says, snapping her out of her thoughts. "What's troubling you?"_

_She manages to stop herself from biting her lower lip, forcing herself to keep an impassive expression. "Just… thinking about Earth," she answers untruthfully, looking past Eve's shoulder._

"_Your courage for my people will be remembered. You won't be alone in your fight," Eve says with heavy conviction, the krogan shaman's eyes boring into hers with an honest sincerity that sends a massive stab of guilt through her._

* * *

**2220 CE**

"Shit. _Shit_," Shepard muttered, angrily wiping the errant tears from her eyes. She had immediately confessed to Wrex and Bakara about what she had almost done to the krogan race, unable to keep such a thing from Wrex, who had been her ally since the beginning, and from Bakara, who held an unshakable faith and belief in her since after they had first met in Sur'Kesh. Bakara's reaction was almost unbearably sympathetic, letting her know that she knew where Shepard was coming from. Her understanding reaction to Shepard's near betrayal was just as hard to shoulder as the guilt. Even Wrex was forgiving, and her surprise over that was almost enough to overpower the guilt. Almost.

* * *

**2186 CE**

_She watches as the Shroud collapses, the entire facility falling to the ground with a swirling tower of flames and smoke accompanying it, the massive cloud containing the cure dispersing all over the planet, curing every krogan in Tuchanka of the genophage. She holds out a hand, watching a few bits and pieces of the cure slowly drift down like snow into her palm. She looks around her, seeing multiple krogan looking up in wonder and spreading their arms, letting the cure wash over them._

_Happiness. That's the emotion she should be feeling right now, alongside the increasingly joyous roars of the krogan everywhere. Happiness, even though there are some elderly krogan falling to their knees all over Tuchanka, almost unable to believe that the curse that has plagued their people for fifteen hundred years has been now been removed. Happiness, even through all the tears the females are shedding, grateful for the fact that there would no longer be billions of neverborn krogan._

_But no. All she feels is guilt. Guilt and shame. Guilt that she has almost sabotaged this cure, and shame that she could very well be seeing this same exact scene even if she had indeed gone on with the sabotage, with the krogan none the wiser of the duplicitous act that has almost been done to them. But most of all, shame that she has almost turned her back on Wrex, who has been one of her staunchest allies for years. On Eve, who has held an unshakable faith and trust in her from the moment they had met. On Grunt, who calls her krantt, calls her battlemaster._

"_I… have something I need to tell the two of you," she says to Eve and Wrex._

_Almost immediately, Eve picks up on her mood, already sensing that something is wrong._

"_Walk with us, Commander," the female shaman says, turning around to lead her and Wrex for a little stroll, while Wrex shoots her confused glances now and then._

**~*S*~**

"_Understandable, but not acceptable. Will not sacrifice krogan for political gain." Mordin turns his back on her, resolutely making his way towards the Shroud elevator._

_She follows him, her posture showing a mixture of surprise and anger. "Every time we've talked about this before, you defended the genophage! Hell, I had to talk you into saving Maelon's data! How can you change your mind now?" she demands. She expects to be ready for anything Mordin says, yet his response still manages to shock her._

"_I MADE A MISTAKE!" Mordin roars, furiously rounding towards her. The mere fact that he yells so loudly is enough to surprise her; the doctor is never above raising his voice when needed, but never to this level. That, combined with his admission, is enough to shock her into complete silence._

_Mordin's expression is angry, ashamed, guilty. Then, just as quickly, his anger dissolves, his shoulders slumping down as he realizes what he has just said to her. "… I made a mistake… was too focused on the big picture. Lost sight of little pictures. Disregarded minority in favor of statistics. Ignored… mothers who sacrificed selves for chance at cure." Mordin's fists clench. "I made a mistake. Never should have treated krogan as nothing more than scientific statistic. Krogan females in Maelon's lab… never want to hear or see anything like that ever again." He looks up and looks at her, his eyes full of pain and guilt. "Shepard, please. Need to do this. My project. My work. My cure. My… responsibility."_

**~*S*~**

"… _And that was when Mordin made me truly realize what I was actually considering to do," she says, taking a deep breath and holding it as she shamefully looks at Wrex and Eve. The female shaman, as always, has an inscrutable expression on her face. Wrex, though… his expression is full of rage, though if it is aimed at the dalatrass, at her, or both, she has no idea. His fists repeatedly clench and unclench, and she is almost completely sure that he is extremely close to sending her flying with a biotically-enhanced punch to the gut. Not that she'd try to defend herself against it. After what had just happened, she feels that she would deserve anything that Wrex would send her way._

_The Urdnot clan leader raises a hand, and she barely manages to suppress a flinch. Instead of the biotic punch she is expecting, Wrex surprises her by gripping her upper arm in a steely grip, firm but not suffocating. He has managed to school his expression, making it impossible for her to read it._

"_What did I tell you?" he asks Eve, turning his head slightly to look at the shaman. "She can be a fool, but never traitorous." He turns his head back towards her. "I was right when I called you a friend and hero to the krogan, Shepard."_

"_Not me," she mutters, unable to stand Wrex's praises in light of her near-betrayal. "It was all Mordin."_

"_Where is the doctor, anyway?" Eve asks, looking around as if just noticing the fast-talking salarian's absence._

_Her fists clench, tight enough that she can feel her fingers against her palms even through her gloves. "He didn't make it. He insisted on staying and making sure the cure was properly deployed." She looks away, her jaw tight. "If I'd only warned him and you guys about the sabotage earlier… maybe he could have prepared more for it… maybe he could have -"_

_Eve cuts an arm through the air, catching her attention. "He did what had to be done, Commander. He has righted the wrong that has been slowly killing our kind for the past fifteen hundred years. Never again will there be krogan mothers crying for their unborn children. For that, Mordin shall always be a hero to us."_

"_Hell, we'll even name one of our kids after him," Wrex says, grinning. "Maybe one of our daughters. Now come on. I'll need to talk to you for a bit before you get on your way."_

**~*S*~**

"_Can't really blame you, Shepard," Wrex says a few hours later. He is sitting with her at the Urdnot base, both of them nursing a glass of ryncol each._

"_Huh?" she asks, her eyes bleary as she looks up at him. She almost has a hard time focusing on him; she's already on her third cup of ryncol, even though humans aren't even supposed to be able to stand after just one shot of the stuff. She makes a mental note to thank Cerberus for her implants later._

"_About hiding what you and the dalatrass talked about," he says in a low rumble, downing the rest of his ryncol before pouring himself another shot. "My race hasn't really encouraged everyone else to think too well of us, huh?"_

"_Been talking to Eve… to Bakara a lot aboard the Normandy?" she says teasingly, her voice slowly starting to slur as the ryncol starts taking effect on her. "That sounds like something she'd say."_

"_Well, when the females are going to be the ones running the show, us men are going to have to learn to see things from their point, way I see it," Wrex half-grumbles._

_She grins, remembering an earlier conversation with Wrex. "So I take it you're okay with the never-ending talking to figure out things?"_

_Wrex grimaces in answer. "Don't remind me, Shepard." The two of them grin at each other, raising their cups in silent salute before downing the rest of their drinks. "So tell me, Shepard," Wrex says, his face growing serious, "tell me what the pyjak's last words were."_

_Her face grows serious as well, the guilt coming back to haunt her. Wrex sees her expression, and he grunts. "I just want to hear it so I know what to write on the damn monument Bakara wants to put in the Hollows."_

_She nods, understanding what Wrex is asking for. "So he just finished yelling at me…"_

**~*S*~**

_She deflates, unable to argue with Mordin's heartfelt plea. Instead, she feels sick and completely disgusted at herself as she wonders why she even considered listening to that damn dalatrass in the first place. How is it that she even considered stabbing Wrex, one of her closest friends and allies, in the back like that? To give the krogan hope, then just yank it out from underneath them without as much as a warning? How is it that the scientist who himself made the genophage more effective is the one to argue for curing it, and she – who herself is already considered an honorary Urdnot despite being a human – is the one to even consider sabotaging the cure?_

_She almost falls to her knees at her realization, gripping the edge of a console to steady herself as she looks at Mordin, guilt and shame racing through her body. She looks at the console screen, staring at her reflection. Recently, the glowing red scars from her Cerberus augmentations have returned, revealing the stress she has been put under since the Reapers invaded. They show through parts of her face, some of the scars showing the cybernetics in her jaw, in her cheek, her forehead. The voice of Doctor Chakwas floats around her head, reminding her of the causes of these scars. "Be compassionate. I'm just saying, a little more optimism and a little less realism will help, Commander," Doctor Chakwas has told her once before._

_Has this war finally brought out the ruthless part inside her? Even during her fight against the Collectors, she had never forgotten her personal principles, the ones she promised her mother on that fateful day in Mindoir sixteen years ago. She had stopped Garrus from murdering Sidonis, Mordin from Maelon, Zaeed from those innocent factory workers, Miranda from Niket, Jack from Aresh, and Jacob from his father._

_Are the Reapers truly getting to her that way, that even after all those deeds she has done in the past, she is willing to turn her back on her promise to her mother and stab the krogan in the back? She bites her lips, looking back up at Mordin, a pained and shameful look in her eyes._

"_You're right," she whispers. Mordin says nothing, only nodding and going for the elevator behind him._

"_Glad you understand, Shepard," Mordin says, offering her another nod. He gives her a small and sad smile as a thought occurs to him. "Would have liked to run tests on those seashells," he muses, rubbing a hand on his chin._

"_Mordin… I'm so sorry," she says, her voice breaking as Mordin closes the elevator doors, the glass sliding shut and separating her from the salarian._

_Mordin's smile grows wider, a gentle look in his eyes as he looks at her in the eye. "I'm not. Had to be me. Someone else-"_

* * *

**2220 CE**

"-might have gotten it wrong," Shepard whispered to herself, gripping the seashell as tightly as she could. That was the last time she had ever seen Mordin, as the Shroud facility was already close to completely breaking down even before they had gotten to it due to the attack by the Reaper destroyer. Before she could even call for Cortez to try and pull Mordin out, the topmost level of the Shroud, the level where Mordin was headed, burst into flames as it exploded, undoubtedly killing the salarian doctor.

"Damn it all," Shepard said, her hand tightening so hard against the seashell that she felt a sudden prick of pain. Opening her palm, she noticed that the shell's edge had sliced into her palm, creating a long cut where blood was already leaking out of. But the twinge of pain was mostly ignored as that old feeling of guilt, that disgusting side of her that had considered backstabbing the krogan, came back up and hit her full on.

"Damn it," she said again, dropping the shell to the sand and pulling her knees up to her chin, burying her head between them as unbidden sobs suddenly racked through her body, tears pouring from her eyes. Try as she might, she couldn't stop the tears, nor the sobbing, from coming out of her, all of her pent-up guilt and frustration over her decisions over the war finally caught up with her.

"Daddy?"

A small, cool hand laid itself on Shepard's arm, causing her head to shoot up. She laid eyes with a mirror image of her own, watching her own steely-gray eyes framed by a younger version of Liara's face staring back at her. "Daddy?" her eldest, Benezia, asked again. "Why are you crying, Daddy?" Though already thirty-two years old, Benezia was really only nine or ten years old as far as human children developed. Back when Benezia was about to be born, Liara had been worried that Shepard might balk at the thought that her own daughter would basically be stuck as a child for four decades, but Shepard was actually excited at the fact. "Just means she gets to be my little girl for a bit longer before she even starts thinking about other boys or girls," she'd told Liara excitedly.

The concerned expression on her daughter broke Shepard's heart even more. As young as Benezia was, she was surprisingly perceptive, something Shepard was sure had come from Liara. "Jellybean. C'mere," was all she said in reply, quickly gathering her daughter in her arms, who immediately hugged her back as tightly as she could, both of them burying into each other's necks. Shepard sniffled, still unable to stop her tears, though she had managed to reduce her sobbing to ragged, shaky breaths.

"Are you okay now, Daddy?" Benezia asked, her voice muffled. "Please stop crying. You never cry." Though she couldn't see her face, Shepard could already feel that her daughter was also about to cry, judging by the way her tiny shoulders were already starting to shake.

"I'm fine, sweetheart, I'm fine," Shepard tried to assure her daughter, trying to soothe her by running a hand up and down her back.

"But you're crying," Benezia protested, pulling back slightly to look her dad in the eyes. Her own eyes were brimming with tears, and her bottom lip was quivering.

Shepard gave a watery smile, leaning her forehead against her daughter's. "Just having you here is making me feel better already, Jellybean."

"What about Mom and Minnie?" Benezia asked, a small smile finally coming back to her lips.

"Of course them too," Shepard chuckled. "The three of you are the best things that ever happened to me, have I ever told you that?"

Benezia giggled. "A lot of times, Daddy. Even when Minnie and I are being–?"

"Even then, Jellybean," she interrupted, hugging her daughter close to her again.

"Morrigan?" Shepard looked up to see Liara walking up to her, Minerva in her arms. Both were wearing concerned expressions.

"Liara," Shepard said, smiling sadly up at her bondmate. "I'm fine, just thinking about… an old friend."

"Who, Daddy?" Minerva asked from her perch in Liara's arms. She reached out, seeing her father's tears and red-rimmed eyes. Liara smiled, and handed their youngest over to Shepard, who shifted so she could hold both Benezia and Minerva at the same time.

"I was thinking about your Uncle Mordin," Shepard said in reply. Despite the varying races and ages of her crew in the Normandy, all of them were "aunts" and "uncles" to the Shepard-T'Soni family, even the ones who didn't make it after the war.

"Isn't Uncle Mordin's statue in Tuchanka?" Benezia asked. Shepard and Liara had taken their children a couple of times to Tuchanka, where Wrex had made Shepard promise to take the kids back when they were older in order to take the Rite of Passage for Clan Urdnot.

"That's right, Jellybean," Shepard said. "He has that statue because he saved your Uncle Wrex, Uncle Grunt, Aunt Bakara and all the krogan everywhere."

Both of her kids' eyes grew wide. Liara smiled in their childlike wonder, sitting down beside Shepard and wrapping an arm around her. "So why are you crying, Daddy?" Minerva asked with a sad look on her face.

"Because in order to make sure that he could save all of the krogan, he gave himself up in return," Shepard explained with a sad smile. "That's why I was crying, Minnie. I miss him very much."

"Tell us about him, Daddy!" Benezia said, an excited smile on her face. "Mom says when you're sad because you miss someone, talking about them makes you not sad anymore!"

"Well, who am I to argue with your mom?" Shepard said with a chuckle, resting her head against Liara's crest. "She_ is _the smartest person in the galaxy, after all."

"That's right! Mommy's the smartest!" Minerva echoed.

"So, about your Uncle Mordin. He was one of the bravest, strongest, and kindest men I have ever known. See, during your Uncle Grunt's Rite of Passage…"

As Shepard regaled her children with stories about her favorite salarian scientist, she swore she could hear a faint voice over by the beach singing a certain song she had once heard onboard the Normandy.

_My xenoscience studies range from urban to agrarian-  
__I am the very model of a scientist salarian!_


End file.
